Halkey-Roberts, a manufacturer of inflator mechanisms for the PFD industry, has reported that its manual-automatic mechanisms, Mark II (product number V80000) and Mark III, (product number V83000), when used in combination with carbon dioxide cylinders with a half-inch threaded neck produced by Nippon Tansan Gas Company (NTG) and distributed by either NTG or Leland Limited, sometimes fail to pierce the cylinder when activated automatically by water. The same potential condition holds for United Moulders, Ltd., (UML) Mark III manual- semiautomatic mechanisms when used in combination with the NTG/Leland C02 cylinder.

According to the news release, the Halkey-Roberts inflators are not marked with an identifying product number and come in black only. Likewise, Leland/NTG cylinders are marked Leland or NTG but may be coated, making the marking invisible.

The news release emphasized that the products named are not faulty in themselves, but that they may not work well together. No problems have been reported to the Coast Guard in the manual operation of these devices, nor have any problems been reported with these parts when used in combination with other inflators or cylinders.

The Coast Guard urged owners of Techvests and Techfloats to check their model number against those listed because Survival Technologies coats its cylinders and NTG is not visible on the cylinders.

The list includes only information that has been provided by manufacturers. As a result, the Coast Guard noted that manufacturers not listed may have inflatable PFDs with this inflator-cylinder combination and urged owners of inflatable PFDs to check their equipment for this combination of inflator and cylinder.

Because the products involved are not Coast Guard-approved, the Coast Guard cannot give authoritative instructions on how they should be handled. Owners of affected PFDs should be aware that unless the manufacturer is contacted and corrective action is taken, these devices might not provide any flotation unless they are inflated manually.

Coast Guard-approved inflatable PFDs are expected to be available to the public before the 1997 boating season begins, and they will be marked with a U.S. Coast Guard approval number starting with 160.076.

Consumers who want more information should contact the manufacturers of their inflatable PFDs. The following manufacturers have informed the Coast Guard of affected models and would like owners of these models to call: